


it doesn't change, best friend

by ThisLove



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, It's Not Crack I Swear, M/M, Pre-Relationship, i don't really know how to tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-25 09:43:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20722139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisLove/pseuds/ThisLove
Summary: Let it be known that when it came to Nakamoto Yuta, Kim Doyoung wasn't always a rational nor a functional human being.





	it doesn't change, best friend

**Author's Note:**

  * For [submarinebunny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/submarinebunny/gifts).

> ok so a long time ago i found this [tweet](https://twitter.com/dimifeli/status/1109447362144014337) on my tml and i decided i'd write something inspired by it :)
> 
> it's doyu because i love doyu and i also love gio, the one who made me love doyu haha this fic is my (belated) birthday gift to her! gigio i love you in japanese, in portuguese, in russian and in every language that exists too! i wish you the best always ♥
> 
> please enjoy, and i'm sorry for mistakes! :)
> 
> the title is from 'best friend' by nct dream!

Let it be known that when it came to Nakamoto Yuta, Kim Doyoung wasn't always a rational nor a functional human being.

Thats why it wasn’t surprising that he’d come up with something such as fake dating (well, technically Taeyong came up with the idea--) as a solution for their hassle with having enough money for their get together at the end of the month.

(It had nothing to do with the fact that Doyoung was, in fact, very much in love with Yuta and pretending to be dating him for a few hours would be like having a small taste of it, even if it wasn’t real. _Shut up_, he wasn’t that whipped.)

“So, you’re saying that it’s a paid study?” Yuta asks for clarification, “on couples? And they’re going to ask us some things and then we’ll get the money?”

“Basically, yes,” Doyoung fidgets in his seat. “We’ll only have to pretend to be dating for a few hours at max…?! And, I mean, we’ve been living together for a few years now, so it couldn’t be that hard, right?”

Yuta seemed pensive about that for a few instants, but then it seemed that he had made a decision.

“Ok, I’ll do it,” he smiles in a slightly different way than what Doyoung was used to. “It’ll be an easy thing to do, we’ll get the money, and I’m sure there’ll be no harm,” Yuta concludes.

_Famous last words_, Doyoung’s brain offers unhelpfully, but it was too late to go back now.

**( ; )**

Yuta and Doyoung meet at the psychology department a few minutes before the time for the appointment, and both of them aren’t too much worried about the interview or whatever it will be. They can handle this stuff, they are college students! They are able to write a paper in one night, they surely can do this!

It’s not until they are sitting in front of one of the researchers that they notice something essential to that interview but that they didn’t even think about before getting to the place: the folder said that they’d have to be dating for at least six months. They did not think about how much time they’d have been dating nor that it would have been six months. They didn’t discuss anything.

They surely can’t do this.

Yuta was the one who pointed to the small reminder on the piece of paper and showed Doyoung what it said. Doyoung tried to control his face and only nodded with a polite smile to show that he had seen it and that he knew that they were screwed.

So much for trying to get some extra money…

They introduced themselves to the researcher (his name was Choi Youngjae) and tried to stay calm about everything. It would all backfire, eventually, but they could try to see how much they could get away with it, right?

Yuta offered a hand for Doyoung to hold when it was the time for the interview, and Doyoung was thankful for it because he loved being reassured with touches (even if he wasn’t always a skinship person) and also because… Yuta. More specifically, Yuta’s small hands that fit perfectly with his… And Doyoung would deny it to his last breath, but he dedicated One Direction’s songs to Yuta (and his hands) a lot.

“So, I take it you’ve been dating for more than six months,” Youngjae smiled, “for how long then?”

“For a year, at least,” Yuta answered the first question with a calmness that Doyoung could only dream about in that moment. “We live together for more than two years now, but uh, one year dating…”

(Saying this specific date had nothing to do with the fact that Yuta had had a crush on Doyoung for this long… Nope. Nothing at all.)

Youngjae then kept asking things about their relationship, always making sure that they were things that they were comfortable sharing.

“I think that things weren’t as easy at the start. We didn’t have a clue about living together and… dating… but we’re doing pretty great now,” Doyoung answered the therapist, after he asked them about how they thought they were doing so far.

There were more random questions asked, and the two men took turns in answering them to Youngjae. It could look like they rehearsed everything, but it was just the way their friendship was, give and take, and it worked for them.

“This last month Doyoung watched some football games with me,” Yuta commented happily, “he doesn’t support the teams the way I do, but he makes me company while I watch it,” he smiled.

“I still don’t know much about the game rules, but I think I pretty much can recognize players from Manchester United and Palmeiras now,” Doyoung completed, trying to sound a bit annoyed at the fact that he knew so much about a sport he didn’t use to care about before meeting Yuta.

“But you learned almost all the rules already, you always get things right!”

“Yeah, but not that I wanted to learn it on purpose,” Doyoung stuck his tongue out jokingly at Yuta. “But I can’t complain, since Yuta also watches stuff with me too, mostly American TV shows and music videos from artists that I like…”

“We have different tastes but we always compromise,” Yuta nodded at Doyoung, who nodded back.

Yuta explained how at the beginning there were some arguments because of the way he left his football shoes all over the place, and then one time Doyoung ended up tripping over it and he learned how to put it in the corner so that it wouldn’t happen again.

Doyoung told about the fact that sometimes he took too much time on the bathroom in the mornings, trying to deal with the make-up on the scar near his mouth, but now he tried not to make Yuta late for his classes anymore. And besides, Yuta kept saying that it was cute and well, Doyoung might have gotten a bit more confident about it after that.

(Yuta loved to poke at Doyoung’s cheek and he thought that the scar on his face was just another one of the things that made Doyoung who he was.)

The two men seemed to be playing their part really well and everything seemed really good until Youngjae said that they would be interviewed alone now.

Doyoung was the first one to get the questions and to be honest he tried very hard to come up with some answers about his relationship with Yuta. However, he didn’t last more than five minutes and spilled everything to Youngjae about how they weren’t really a couple.

“I thought it would be a great idea, because me and Yuta, we are great friends and we know each other, so we could pretend to date, you know?” He said almost breathlessly, “and I also love Yuta, it isn’t pretend, how could I not love Yuta? I’m sure he’d be a great boyfriend for anyone who’d have--”

“Doyoung, please breathe,” Youngjae offered after some time. “Calm down…”

“Okay.”

“I would like if you could answer me some more things, but I understand if you feel weird about it.”

“Uh, I don’t think I can answer anything that will help?!…” Doyoung said. “Since I’m not dating with Yuta for real, won’t it be useless?”

“Well, I can still finish what I had prepared and I’ll see what I’ll do about the questions about the nature of your relationship later…”

“Ok, then.”

After some more minutes, the time was almost up and Yuta had yet to be interviewed alone, so Doyoung and Youngjae rushed their talk. Before leaving, Doyoung apologized once more for lying, saying that he was afraid that Youngjae could see everything through him and that’s why he told the truth once he was alone.

“I’m a psychologist, but I can’t read minds,” Youngjae deadpanned. “Yes, I noticed some awkward behavior, but if it’s worth it, you should go for it, for the dating thing I mean. I think there’s something real in this fake thing you two have created to show me,” he offered.

Doyoung could only nod and then he left the room, asking Yuta to go in his place instead, without having the time to tell Yuta that he’d ‘betrayed’ their story and told the truth. Well, Youngjae would probably tell Yuta that he knew it already, but it wasn’t like it was a terrible and unforgivable thing.

They would certainly not get the money, but maybe if Youngjae could give the same advice to Yuta regarding their relationship, then they would get something else that is totally more valuable: a romantic relationship of sorts. Or maybe, Youngjae wouldn’t say anything and things would stay the same. That was good too.

Minutes later, Youngjae called Doyoung back into the room and he sat again in the chair beside Yuta. Yuta seemed to be a bit red on the face, and Doyoung was already worried about what the psychologist could have said to him while he was outside.

“You two did well on the interview,” Youngjae said to them, rereading some of the answers they had given in the session.

Doyoung was hopeful. Maybe Youngjae would take pity on them and still offer the money--

“But I’m afraid we can’t pay you two for the research, since you weren’t really dating and this was one of the conditions for this study…”

Youngjae explained that their answers would be kept in their database, but not for the couple’s research.

“I will give you some… bonus… for coming here and taking your time to answer the questions,” Youngjae offered. “Maybe it’s enough for a snack or for a bus, at least I hope so, and it’s like a ‘thank you’ for helping us either way…”

Doyoung and Yuta thanked him again for being thoughtful, and also apologized for any hassle they might have given him. The two then left the psychology department, hand in hand again, not really saying anything about what happened.

They fake dated for a few hours and it didn’t work. But they were still Doyoung and Yuta, best friends, so it was okay.

“Should we be responsible and save the money for later or should we grab some ice cream?” Yuta asked.

“Ice cream sounds really great right now,” Doyoung replied, sighing a bit tiredly.

They went to the ice cream parlor nearest to their apartment, and decided to choose random flavors of it.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t get the money from the study,” Yuta said some time later, while he ate bits of his ice cream.

“Don’t worry,” Doyoung mumbled nonchalantly. “I actually thought it wouldn’t even work at the beginning, but it did and I had fun…”

“Me too!” Yuta smiled.

“Perhaps if we had rehearsed it first,” the other man shrugged. “I think Youngjae noticed the lie very quickly, and I also didn’t know how to keep making things up…”

“Uhmm, yeah we should have rehearsed,” Yuta agreed. “Maybe next time we can be convincing enough.”

“Next time?”

“Yeah?! I mean, I think the psychology department might be always making things like these, with couples and stuff… And then we can participate again...”

“Yeah…” Doyoung nodded. “Or maybe we could, like, date for real so that it would be way more believable,” he coughed a bit when suggesting, not looking at Yuta after he talked.

Doyoung being bold about his feeling for Yuta? It’s more likely than you think!

Yuta was taken aback for a while, but he recovered rather quickly for someone who had been just (sort of) confessed too.

“Kim Doyoung,” Yuta said in awe, “that sounds like a great idea... In fact, I think we could start it right now, if you wanted,” he grinned at Doyoung.

It wasn’t surprising that their first kiss ended up being in front of an ice cream parlor, after they fake dated for money, and that it tasted like ice cream on their mouths. The second and third and multiple kisses after that happened in different ways, since they kept trying to make the best out of it – and also because they were in public so…

Let it be known that when it came to Nakamoto Yuta, Kim Doyoung wasn't always a rational nor a functional human being. But he wouldn’t have it any other way, since Yuta was the same with him.

**BONUS SCENE:**

“Yuta, you either backhug me or watch the game. You can’t do both at the same time,” Doyoung said while trying to lean down a bit to let his boyfriend see what was in front of him.

He never thought that one day he’d be at a football stadium, or that he’d be watching a football match with someone ever – that someone being Yuta, who was his boyfriend now – and that he’d be paying attention to the game.

“I was trying to be cute and romantic,” Yuta complained, and when Doyoung turned to look at him, there was a pout on his lips.

Doyoung rolled his eyes, fondly.

“We can still be cute and romantic if you let me go behind you.”

“The way this sentence can be everything but cute and romantic in another context…”

“Yuta.”

“What?” He laughed at Doyoung, before leaving a kiss on his cheek quickly.

Doyoung moved in his place so that he was the one hugging Yuta now and the two of them proceeded to keep watching the game. Doyoung now knew a lot more about the game, Yuta kept screaming at someone saying he played better than them, and the whole stadium cheered when there were goals.

After the game, Yuta and Doyoung left the place hand in hand, and Doyoung was glad that he was able to enjoy the football match again. Sometimes he could even say that he liked football.

“Can’t wait to come back here to watch the NCT Dream concert,” Yuta said animatedly, looking back at the arena.

Doyoung thought it was funny that one of the things he liked would mix with something Yuta liked, and he was content with that. Music and football seemed like a rather good match, after all. He beamed at Yuta, agreeing with him excitedly.

“Are you going to memorize the songs for their concert then?” Doyoung asked.

“Of course I will! I will even serenade you with ‘My first and last’, Doie!”

Doyoung laughed at that, and since he didn’t have any other response to it he decided to kiss Yuta instead.

**Author's Note:**

> i think there's a lot of easter eggs for gio here because we have like lots of headcanons about doyu and i wanted to put them on the fic haha gigio i love youuu!
> 
> thank you everyone for reading, and if you want to talk about doyu or even johnil, you can find me on [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/haenjun) uwu
> 
> m.


End file.
